Goodbyes Are Not Always For Forever
by happpysmiles123
Summary: He's stuck in the middle of the cacophony, watching the people he once shared unforgettable memories and still-kept secrets slowly and painfully detach themselves from the world. Watching them fall and crumble under the heavy weight of death. And he can't do anything.


**A/N: So this is my first fic for the Walking Dead and it might suck or might not. There really isn't much of a setting here, but I imagined they escaped from Terminus and the surviving group walked into a field that was filled with Walkers. The field is the only path into the woods. So yeah! I hope you all enjoy it and again sorry if its suckish. **

He wants to drown them out. He wants to drown everything out: the smell of rotting and decayed flesh, the loud sound of bullets escaping their confines space to bury themselves in heads that should've stayed six feet under instead of wandering the world, and the screams of terror that are produced by the living that don't want to end up like the ones they are fighting. It all surrounds him and he wants to get away. He _needs_ to get away, but he can't.

He's stuck in the middle of the cacophony, watching the people he once shared unforgettable memories and still-kept secrets slowly and painfully detach themselves from the world. Watching them fall and crumble under the heavy weight of death. And he can't do anything.

He watches, under the Georgia heat, as the man who he called brother aims and shoots his arrow, making it pierce the weakened skull in front of him. His last arrow and he is surrounded. He uses the bow as a last resort. He swings and he pushes, but more and more keep coming and he can't.

Daryl was never a quitter; always a fighter, but today, right now, he gives up. He manages to catch the ex-sheriff's gaze and give him one last look. One look that conveys a silent message "It was nice knowing you." Daryl nods a farewell before he drops the bow and is enveloped by rotten teeth and clawing hands.

Rick immediately tries to run towards his fallen friend, but he barely takes two steps before an enemy blocks his way. He barely manages to avoid the bite aimed towards his shoulder, but he ended up pushing it away and ending its hunger with a bullet to the brain.

When Rick looked back towards Daryl the crowd was gone and left in its place was the bow, glinting under the sun. One lonely tear runs down the bruised and battered face before it splatters to the ground and vaporizes from the heat.

A scream and Rick forces himself to look in its direction, only to find it belonging to the woman who lost everything, but found love. A love that was pure and a love that gave hope. A love that is now fading away as the other half struggles to free itself from the clutches of the walkers on top of him. Rick starts walking towards them, shooting any stragglers in his way. But it was too late. Another scream and Rick stops to look as one of the walkers rips off a chunk of Glenn's shoulder and the other does the same to his arm.

He glances at Maggie, who stood in horror as she watches her love die before her eyes. He sensed what might happen next, but before he could reach them and stop her, she's marching towards Glenn with fury and she shoots the two walkers. And Rick watches. Rick watches as Maggie drops to the ground beside a now lifeless Glenn and breaks down. He watches as she sobs and presses her forehead against Glenn's, but he couldn't watch when she raised her hand and pressed the tip of gun on Glenn's forward. He turned around right before loud bang went off.

Another tear runs down his face and when a second bang follows the first, another tear. He can't look back. He can't bear to see two others gone. Instead, when several walkers are going towards him, he fights them. He shoots and he twists decayed necks, but it's not satisfying. It never is. Unaware of the body, he trips over it and lands on the grass with a grunt. He hastily moves away from it, thinking its a walker, but once he's up and he looks at it, he realizes it's not. Lying on the ground with eyes widened and forever frozen with shock was the one woman he's grown to trust. In her hand, near her face she had her famous Katana. Two tears rolled down his cheeks as he bent forward and closed Michonne's eyes. She deserved better than three bites on her torso.

He gets back up and sees more walkers going towards him. These things destroyed his life. These things destroyed his friends. These things destroyed his family. These things destroyed him. With a growl he smashes his fist against the face of one. He continues with the others. He grunts and growls, but he fights. One last grunt and one last bullet his path is cleared and the woods are beckoning for him. He has the chance to escape the madness behind him. Ten steps more and he is free, but free from what exactly. Free from walkers? He'll see more in the future. Free from pain? He lost people he grew close to. The pain won't ever go away.

"Dad!"

Rick snaps out of his thoughts and quickly spins around, but he can't see anything amongst the horde. He squints and he scrutinizes, but he can't find his son.

"Carl!"

"Dad! Over here!" Rick follows the direction of Carl's voice and a big sigh of relief escapes his chapped lips when he sees his son not too far away and also free from walkers. Tears of joy threatened to escape as he immediately begins to walk towards Carl in a hasty pace. He needs to feel him. He needs confirmation that the boy drenched with blood and sweat, but who has a bright smile plastered on his face is really the boy Rick raised from the beginning, and not a hallucination.

Three more steps and he can hold his son. One, two…

"NO!"

It all happened so fast and so sudden, there was no way of stopping the inevitable. Out of nowhere a walker came out from behind Carl and sunk its teeth into his flesh. A look of surprise flashed across Carl's face before it morphed into one of pain as he fell to his knees.

Rick roared as he brought his gun up and continuously pulled the trigger, effectively putting an end to the walker. Bang after bang after bang after bang. He's a in frenzy and he couldn't pull away. It wasn't until a weak "stop" from Carl that Rick finally stops and stands still while breathing heavily.

"Dad…" Carl mumbles as best as he can. Rick finally looks down at his son and much like Maggie he breaks down into a sobbing mess. He drops to his knees and hugs Carl to his chest. He clutches Carl's head as gently as he can as he rocks back and forth.

"No, no, no, no, no, no..." Rick repeats through his cries. This can't be happening. No...not this. Not his Carl.

"Dad…I'm…I'm okay," Carl softly assure. Rick stops rocking and looks down at a pale and sweaty Carl. Tears land on the boy's cheeks and Rick brings his other hand up and wipes them away. He kept his hand on Carl's cheek and caresses the skin with his thumb.

"Carl…I'm so…I'm so sorry…I should have protected you…I should ha –"

"Sshh." Carl smiles as he covers his dad's lips with his hand. "It's okay."

Rick trails his hand up Carl's arm until he intertwines their fingers together. Carl's hand was cold.

"I'm gonna be okay dad. I'm gonna see Judith and Mom again." Carl whispered as happily as he could. More tears flowed down Rick's face at the mention of her little girl and Lori. He lost them too. He failed. He had one job and he failed. Now he failed again.

Carl's skin begins to turn into a sickly gray color and his breathing becomes more erratic and Rick knows there not much time left.

"Dad?" Carl whispered.

"Shhh. I'm right here Carl. I'm right here. I'm not gonna leave you." Rick forced through his sobs. He can hear walkers getting closer to them, but he's not moving. He is staying here with Carl.

Carl's eyes are slowly losing life, but he manages to say one last thing.

"I love you." Carl barely whispers before his last breath overtook him and the hand that was tightly clutching Rick's became limp.

"I love you too." Rick lips quivers. One sob. Rick lets go of Carl's hand and watches it fall. Two sobs. Rick curls his arm around Carl's torso. Three and Rick holds Carl tighter against him as his whole body wracks with each sob that follows. Carl's gone. He's gone.

"WHY?!" Rick yelled through a sob as he tilted his head towards the sky. "Why him?"

He looked back down at Carl, whose eyes were rolled back and whose skin was greyer. Veins around the area of the shoulder bite were blue and purple and the bite had stopped bleeding. Walkers were nearer and nearer and Rick's anguish slowly morphed into one of fury. He grabbed the gun he dropped beside Carl and looked around him. He was now surrounded with no way out, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered to him now.

A walker tripped and began crawling towards them, but Rick aims and shoots with Carl still in his other arm. Another does the same and he shoots. Not long after he finds himself shooting each and every walker he was able to that were circling him.

He misses the closest one and when he pulled the trigger to try again the gun-clicked. He ran out. He threw the gun at the walker, but it simply bounced off. The walker continued and nothing was going to stop it.

Rick slowly and brings his hand to his hip, where he had a revolver with one bullet. He pulls it out of the holster and that's when he feels Carl stir. He couldn't bear to look at Carl in that state. He couldn't see his own son become the things that haunted him, so he lowers his head, face down, so that it's side by side with Carl's. He faintly hears that one walker drop and snarl as it crawls towards them, but he clearly hears the hisses from Carl. He shakily raises his hand and presses the tip of the barrel to his temple.

He feels the walker's tug his pants and Carl's head turning towards him, but he shuts his eyes and breathes in. He thinks of all the good memories he's shared with his family. All the laughs and the tears of joy. Then images pop up. Hershel with Beth and Glenn holding Maggie. Daryl and Michonne with cocky smiles. Then Lori holding Judith and Carl standing beside them with his signature beaming smile. He keeps that one image in mind. The image of the family he almost had and could never have. He smiles.

He presses the trigger.

* * *

"Rick? Rick baby? Open your eyes honey. Open them for me."

Rick opens his eyes, but immediately closes them due the harsh fluorescent light above his head. He hears scuffling beside him and then a pair of hands caressing his face. What the –

"There you go sweetie. I'm right here."

Rick tried to open his eyes again, but the light was still too bright so instead he blinked rapidly to get used to it. He heard a constant beeping beside him and what sounded like a new reporter? What the hell? Where is he? What's going on?

"_There has recently been a spread of an unknown virus here in the state of Georgia. Unfortunately it has also spread around the world"_

"Come on Rick. Open them for me."

Finally Rick was able to fully open his eyes and is greeted with…Lori?

"Welcome back."

"_But now there is no need to worry. Everything is under control. The virus has been contained. I repeat the virus has been contained. _


End file.
